Rescue mission is called off for NASA's aging Swift space telescope

NASA called off a last‑ditch rescue of the Swift space telescope, which after more than 20 years of tracking cosmic explosions will now reenter Earth’s atmosphere later this year.
Startup Katalyst’s Link spacecraft went into an uncontrolled spin and later had pointing/positioning problems, so it won’t attempt to capture or boost Swift—NASA had paid about $30 million for the effort.
Katalyst says the high‑risk, fast‑paced mission yielded important lessons, and the setback also leaves a planned future boost for Hubble uncertain.